How do Freight Brokers make their money?

I can understand that. But what about shippers? Instead of paying more for the services of a broker why don't they just do a google search of carriers in their local area and order a truck directly?

That's the problem. I have been trying to get dispatcher job and no one will touch me without previous dispatch experience. I will say it is harder to get your foot in the door as a rookie dispatcher than as a greenhorn driver. And that says a lot.

 

No offense meant but I'll put it to you like this. As a driver, your main concern is properly securing a load and then safely transporting it while maintaining logs. The difference in that and a dispatcher is that a dispatcher has a lot of follow up... we don't just fill out a piece of paper and forget it. There's days where I have 15 loads I'm tracking, booking, quoting, and confirming. Today for instance, I haven't eaten since 9am. We have 30 loads we're currently trying to book before Christmas, Track, Confirm delivery, etc. All of that and I'm working on two RFP's for long term contracts. It's A LOT of work behind the scenes that nobody sees. You all seem to think we post a load to a load board and then play Madden 2013 while we wait for you to call us... that couldn't be further from the truth.

As far as the carriers, that's a great idea for someone who has one load. 98% of my customers ship 200-300 loads a week. My largest ships an average of 346 a week... an average. That's a lot of calling local direct carriers. They'd rather deal with the large carriers and the brokers and let them do the work while they focus on providing customer service and tracking their loads via those mediums.

 

LOL I am sure it gets hectic but it sure beats living out of a truck thousands of miles from home. Besides I was talking about getting a job as a dispatcher for a small carrier not a big time broker like you.

 

Not really big time. We're actually down to 10 employees in six offices and 4 of our 9 dispatchers were out of the office today. I do agree though, beats being in a truck. We're always looking for hard working folks willing to work on commission. There's the catch though... no one wants to work on commission because you don't get paid unless you work hard and cover loads. If you do that, you make a pretty good living. We refuse to pay hourly or salary. Tried that numerous times and got burned every time.

 

A GOOD salesman does not want a salary, they want commission. Just like a good O/O does not want mileage pay, but prefers a good percentage contract.

 

You probably couldn't even release the parking brakes, on my truck. But then, I couldn't sell toilet paper to a diahrea clinic. As I told one of our multi-million dollar agents and he agreed. He was the one to first state that he probably could not drive my truck 50 feet, without tearing something up. You're good at sales, I'm not. I'm good at transporting the freight, you're not. Together, we make a great team!

BTW, are your pink bunny slippers from the company store?

 

Nope. Hammacher Schlemmer.

 

Do you guys have a really high turn over rate? I couldn't work on straight commission as I expect to get paid for my time.

 

You do get paid for your time.. If you are not earning any coin than this job would not be the one for you. Simple as that. There is more to it than most think and yes it is not for everyone and it is not as easy as everyone thinks it is and the ones who thinks it is don't know anything about it.

 

Fair enough. I guess it's like car sales. You can go two weeks and more zero or if it's a better dealership minimum wage that draws against future commissions. Not my cup of tea, not saying it's a bad opportunity for a good "people person" type individual who can sell.